Now, as we all could probably recall, our endearingly simple-minded captain Monkey D. Luffy ate a Gomu Gomu Fruit, which not only altered him physically to become a man made of rubber, it also affected his internal organs and how they worked.
Or failed to work, in some cases. (Seriously, how is it possible for someone to lack that much common sense? Perhaps the inability for rubber to conduct electricity efficiently has something to do with his brain processing information as slow as a student trudging to school on a Monday morning? And don't even get me started on his lack of interest towards some of the hottest female characters ever made up in anime history.)
Now, if I had my way, none of that would be the case. I'll make Luffy eat a totally different Devil Fruit and find himself inexplicably attracted to a certain redhead or raven-haired beauty because for fucks sakes, which pubescent teen won't find them sizzling hot? But damn it all to hell, I don't –
Oh wait.
This is my story.
Which means that I actually can have my way with them.
Heh.
That was me rubbing my hands together with somewhat psychotic glee.
See, I have this whole thing planned out in my mind. Shanks' crew is going to stumble upon a Devil Fruit unlike one they've ever seen before and…
You know what?
How about we start from the very beginning of the story.
Sit back, relax and enjoy as I tell you peeps my version of the epic adventure known to all of us as One fucking Piece.
Devil Fruits.
Said to be the work of the Sea Devil himself, these natural occurring fruits which bestow mystical powers to whoever or whatever consumes them could be found scattered all over the many islands across the world. They are found in larger, more concentrated quantities along the infamous Grand Line, so encounters with these mystical fruits are rare outside of that treacherous stretch of sea, gifting them with a hefty price tag in the black market.
Devil Fruits come in all shapes, sizes and colours and are most easily recognized by the swirly patterns or marks covering them. They are also rumoured to taste awfully bad – so much so that ingesting one feels akin to poisoning oneself. However, the horrid after-taste is a small price to pay, considering the special traits one would acquire upon consumption of the fruit.
There's an estimated hundred odd known Devil Fruit powers, and if it wasn't before, it has become painfully obvious that these fruits are not made equal.
Certain Devil Fruits powers have a distinct advantage over their counterparts – especially so with Logia-class Devil Fruits. Considered the rarest of all, they grant immunity against almost all typical physical blows as they bestow the users with the ability to transform their whole body into natural elements at will, phasing their physical body into particles of the element before reforming back into their original self. Due to the near limitless potential of harnessing such a fearsome power, Logia-class fruits are firmly seated at the top of the Devil Fruit hierarchy.
There are two more types of Devil Fruits – the Zoan and Paramecia-classes.
The former allows the user to shift fully, typically into an animalistic form depending on the fruit's model, or partially into a hybrid of man and beast. Generally regarded as the weakest of the Devil Fruits due to its sole prowess in close combat while in beast form, there's a sub-class that single-handedly changed the public's opinion of these fruits' potential.
The Mythical Zoan fruits.
They allow their hosts to transform into legendary creatures so devastatingly powerful their names are whispered with equal parts reverence and fear. Sadly, aforementioned fruits are getting increasingly sparse now and are thought to have vanished off the face of the world.
Lastly, the Paramecia-class fruits. These fruits do not appear to grant a specific range of powers like the previous two; in fact, they have the widest range of abilities from downright ridiculous to utterly overwhelming. To put it simply, these fruits present to their hosts every other supernatural ability besides for those encompassed within the Logia and Zoan fruits' circle.
Despite the enormous gaps in power between different classes of fruits, the abilities of Devil Fruits were only limited to their users' imagination and creativity. Hence, it wasn't uncommon to see someone who ate a lower class Paramecia fruit to triumph over a Logia-class considered to be far more superior; such was the law of this jungle.
Things were going just swell until something – or more specifically, someone – caught the Sea Devil's attention. See, the Sea Devil was very much real – he just preferred to reside in a different realm as it watched over its territory with indifference, having not been pressed into action once.
He had watched on as the ancient Oharans planted the Tree of Knowledge, and bore witness to how it flourished and grew over the years.
He had watched on as the City of Gold was built, leading to great prosperity for its people.
He had merely watched on as weapons of mass destruction were assembled, amused by the stupidity of these lower life-forms and their never-ending tendency to eradicate their own existence.
He had watched on as the sea slowly re-shaped islands through erosion, as the early inhabitants of the world started to take to the seas in a bid to explore his world.
Not once had he thought to interfere with the happenings.
What was the point? The lives of humans were so short and insignificant, like that of a firefly in comparison to him. In the blink of its eye, what used to be an exuberant child would have aged into a frail, sickly old man.
With the ability to take on any form as he so pleased, the Sea Devil had spent the past few centuries or so shifting from form to form, from ancient aquatic creatures slumbering at the bottom of the sea to beasts roaming the wildlands and a human that had earned its favour with his amusing antics.
Montblanc Noland was his name.
That was the form the Sea Devil had sustained for close to 400 years.
Now, however, he was sporting a form more familiar to us.
A towering beast of a man, his most prominent feature was his black curved moustache. On his head sat a red pirate hat with a Jolly Roger that would have sent most men into a terror-induced flurry. A long red captain's coat was pulled over a simple blue shirt and grey pants.
Gol D. Roger.
The second man to have ever piqued its interest.
The Sea Devil had been sorely disappointed when he was executed by the marines – for a long time, his journey throughout the Grand Line and then to Raftel had been its only source of entertainment.
Thankfully, the execution set into motion a sequence of events that led to the dawning of a new Age of Pirates, and excitement flooded his entire being at the number of ships once against traversing the wide expanse of sea, all in search of the ultimate treasure, the One Piece, discovered and left behind by the Pirate King himself.
This new age also meant that Devil Fruits – his proudest creation – were in high demand. The Sea Devil had never particularly paid attention to the consumption of them or who by; there simply were too many to keep track of.
All but one.
The Yami Yami No Mi, otherwise more commonly known as the Dark Dark Fruit.
Devil Fruits weren't created as equals. He had ensured that by sealing tiny pieces of varying concentration of his being into these fruits before letting nature decide each and every one of their innate ability.
This fruit, however, bestowed powers that pushed at boundaries never meant to be tested, defying the laws of mortality itself.
Darkness had the ability to corrupt… absolutely.
That fruit was a mistake – the little fragment of himself the Sea Devil had imparted into the fruit far more concentrated than originally intended. It stood above all the others as the strongest Devil Fruit.
It had no rival.
To make matters worse, the man that had found and consumed it was wreaking havoc and leaving destruction in his trail wherever he went. Blackbeard's mind was deranged and filled with so much misdirected self-righteousness – no doubt due to the darkness within him – that he could no longer tell right from wrong. Put simply, he had become a threat that needed to be neutralized.
Normally, he wouldn't give two hoots what went down in the world. As the saying goes, "humans are the architect of their own destruction."
This time was different.
He had caused this problem with his oversight, and he intended to remove the cause of it from the face of the Earth.
The Sea Devil regarded the new Devil Fruit in his hands with a tenderness one would save solely for his or her newborn. After all, it had taken quite a curious blend of circumstances as well as a sizeable chunk of his being to produce such a marvel. Furthermore, for the first and last time – he also implanted a sentience into the fruit. It's something he err to do purely due to the unpredictable personality of the sentient being residing within the Devil Fruit.
More often than not, they end up having a… frighteningly merciless nature with a formidable drive to boot.
They are devils after all, and they definitely live up to their name.
This particular fruit looked like none of its kin. Elongated and bright red, it resembled the shape of a crescent moon. The swirly patterns that adorned it weren't evenly distributed but in much higher proportion in the middle of the body and sparse near the either ends because of the centralized location of the sentience.
It was time to put his plan into motion.
He needed a capable host; one that will be able to control and tame the overwhelming power of the Energy Energy Fruit in his hands.
The candidate he had chosen out of the many was none other than Shanks, the red-haired pirate with impressive willpower and a natural flair at swordplay. He, along with his crew of misfits had made their way through the Grand Line, and then the New World without the aid of a Devil Fruit. And if for some ludicrous reason that wasn't enough to persuade the Sea Devil, the fact that at this very moment, his crew was in possession of a random Devil Fruit which could be easily swapped out with the Energy Energy Fruit would have tilted the scales in his favour.
"Here we go," the Sea Devil grinned as the Devil Fruit de-materialized, only to be replaced with a smaller, rounder one. "The real fun begins now."
opopop (My very special, unique way of line-breaking. noflameplz)
The little town known as Foosha Village along the East Blue was in full bustle; as expected whenever the red-haired pirates came to pay a friendly visit. Business all over was blooming as the pirates patronized different stores, making their usual rounds around town. The streets were crowded with locals and pirates alike – the former gathered to get their hands on any juicy piece of gossip they could coax out of the hearty pirates about their latest trip into the infamous Grand Line.
The modestly-sized inn was filled to damn near bursting, but nobody gave a rat's ass. The celebration was in full swing; boisterous drunken laughter and the raucous partying of the patrons could be heard from miles away. Barrels of ale and plates piled high with food were being polished off faster than one could blink, and according to a certain red-haired captain sitting at the counter, the party was just getting started.
"Shanks!" A young boy around the age of ten with jet black hair tugged repeatedly at the sleeves of his shirt to gain his attention. "I want to tell you something very important!"
The redhead downed his drink in a single gulp before regarding the adolescent boy he had come to consider a friend with a wry smile. "What is it, Luffy?"
"Wait." Luffy's lips thinned into a line. "Promise me you'll take me seriously first."
"I promise."
Narrowed eyes peered back at him in suspicion. "You better not be lying. I can tell when you're being dishonest, you know!"
"I've always been taking you seriously, Luffy."
"Nuh-uh! Liar! Last year, I asked to join your crew and you just laughed it off!"
Shanks chuckled fondly at that memory. Luffy had gotten so worked up that day because of his purposefully vague answer, he had thrown a tantrum that would have made God contemplate murder. "I just told you that the time wasn't right."
The child puffed out his cheeks in irritation. "I'm ready to go on an adventure with you, Shanks! I have been training with gramps; I'm strong. You'll totally regret it if you don't recruit me into your crew right now!"
"The Grand Line is not a place just anybody can sail to," Shanks admonished, albeit without any real steel behind his words, "even experienced sailors disappear without a trace."
"But – "
Luffy was cut off mid-sentence by the noisy and overtly dramatic entrance of a teenage boy with a mop of bright pink hair into the inn, echoing Shank's name over and over again. Frantic eyes scanned the interior of the building, and the relief on his face was obvious when the young pirate spotted his captain among the rowdy crowd. Scampering over, his breathing ragged and choppy as if he'd been sprinting his entire way here, he hunched over, hands on his thighs as he took a few seconds to catch his breath and regain his bearings.
The moment he was capable of speech, he straightened and saluted Shanks, the words leaving his mouth in a panicked jumble. "Captain Shanks! I'm sorry I took so long – the Devil Fruit appraiser was out for lunch and he didn't return until barely 10 minutes ago and I urged him to hurry up but – "
"Coby." Shanks interrupted gently with an amused shake of his head, placing a hand on the close-to-hyperventilating boy's shoulder. "Calm down. There's no need to explain to me anything. I'm not like your previous captain" – a flash of anger so profound it reflected in the darkening of his eyes – "and I will not hurt you."
The pink-haired pirate released a shuddering breath, nodding shakily. "Thank you, captain."
Shanks smiled, all traces of animosity gone and lifted the refilled tankard up to his lips to take a small sip of ale. "So what did the appraiser say about the fruit?"
"He said that he had never seen a Devil Fruit like that before. The shape, the colour… it's never been documented before. It also has a strange smell – "
"Eh?! You guys have a Devil Fruit right now?!" Luffy obviously couldn't hold back his growing excitement any longer and interrupted with an awe-struck expression on his face. "Can I see it? I wanna see it!" He started jumping up and down on his seat. "Please let me see it!"
The young pirate, Coby, acquiesced to his request after glancing towards Shanks for his approval. Reaching into the small pouch slung around his shoulders, he pulled out a fruit unlike anything Luffy had seen in his life. It was curved and long – Luffy's first thought was that it looked like the moon hanging high up in the sky at night. The most prominent feature, however, was not the shape but its color – bright red, like that of freshly drawn blood…
Luffy rubbed his eyes. Was he seeing things?
The swirling and eddying patterns seemed to be coalescing into a whole of some sort. Different colours swam across his vision, and he felt his temples start to throb incessantly. The hair on his arms were on end and there was a low hum in his ears, confusing his senses.
Eat me.
Luffy blinked rapidly. What the hell was going on?
He was only mildly aware of what was happening around him; the din from the rest of Shank's crew as they continued partying behind him and the red-haired captain himself engaged in conversation with Coby, who was gesturing animatedly. . .
Then his gaze fell on the neglected Devil Fruit placed atop of the bar counter, easily within reaching distance.
Stop resisting.
Slowly, everything around him faded to black. The hum was getting louder, quickly becoming all he could hear. A part of Luffy dimly registered that this felt like the calm before the storm, when static charges were saturated in the air.
Just a small bite. One bite will do…
Luffy nodded mutely, conceding to the words in his head. It made so much sense. He was hungry, and the fruit will satisfy his needs. The crescendo of noise was gradually reaching its peak as he extended his hand outwards. Before he knew it, he had the fruit in his grasp and was lifting it up to his mouth, already anticipating the burst of flavour.
Yes, yes. So close.
The next sequence of events appeared to take place in ultra-slow motion. Coby shouted in alarm when he noticed that the fruit was missing, and jabbed a finger in his direction before pushing off on his heels in a lunge with a soundless scream. Shanks whirled around, the panic on his face evident as his mouth moved to form words warning and ordering him to put the Devil Fruit down.
Crunch.
Coby's body collided with him, and the impact knocked him off his perch on the chair. The pair sailed through the air in an almost comical manner, the barely eaten fruit in one direction and them in another.
FINALLY!
The last thing Luffy heard before he lost consciousness was a loud, maniacal cackling within his head and a worrying feeling that his life was about to get very, very complicated.
Oh, and that the fruit tasted absolutely horrible.
opopop
The Sea Devil, upon witnessing the fiasco, promptly face-palmed.
Now he understood why humans felt the need to carry out that action.